Remember, we are here to have fun and help expand our interests in retro gaming.

Our purpose is to share, help and support others

The guidelines below are made to protect these goals

B. Overall Community Attitude

Always display a positive, friendly attitude

Be respectful of others' opinions

Try to lurk for a while and get to know the forum before you post.

Do not deliberately start arguments. Debates are great, as long as they remain respectful!

Always try to "give" back to our community. For each time you find help or answers, try to help someone else out in return.

Although you may consider yourself to be an "expert" now, try to remember that we were all new and learning once upon a time.

Stay focused -- Questions outside the scope of a certain forum will either be moved, locked or simply be deleted.

Be nice to each other and respect the moderator. If you have a problem with another member turn to the respective moderator and if the moderator can't help, you can send a private message to an admin.

C. General Rules

Do not post anything which is offensive, hateful, racist, sexist, discriminatory, obscene, vulgar or in violation of local or international laws.

No personal insults. Direct personal insult of another member, i.e., "You are an idiot." and all the variations. Why? Because this isn't grade school. Bottom line -- don't try to tick off others.

Topics such as religion and politics can quickly become heated and disrespectful and should be approached cautiously. General politics, in particular, are prohibited due to the current political climate of the United States. This does not mean that topics related to gaming, such as the role of women or minorities in narratives, are off limits, but they must be approached respectfully and without malice. The moderation team reserves the right to censure anyone who brings hateful views to the forum.

This also applies to Private Messages - Although we do not read Private Messages sent between forum members, the rules for appropriate and inappropriate content apply to them as well.

Each member is responsible for only his or her own posts. If another member breaks rules, you may ignore them or report the problem to the moderators, but you may not use it as an excuse to break rules yourself.

D. Keeping the Forum Clean & Organized

Use the forum's search feature first to see if there are already some good threads on the subject. It's easy to search - just click the "Search" button at the top right of the page.

Read up before asking! There are tons of guides and existing threads with additional info.

When other people (especially new members) fail to search and start new threads on old topics, don't scold them or make them feel unwelcome. The best way to be helpful is by posting a link to a previous relevant thread.

Do not cross-post - Posting information or a thread in more than one forum is annoying and thus not allowed. Just post once in the correct place. "But someone might miss it" is not a valid reason for cross-posting. If someone misses something because they don't read much of the forum, so be it. If something is a relevant tangent to an ongoing discussion, link the other thread.

E. Topic Titles

Try to create meaningful post titles – instead of making something cleaver or attention grabbing, it’s actually better to have accurate and descriptive titles. It will help bring in the most helpful members and will make it easier for users to find the information later via search.

Use thread titles that indicate the subject of the thread, not generic titles such as "Need help". Moderators may change thread titles that have no specifics, usually by adding something more specific in parentheses.

No "inappropriate language" in forum titles – titles get posted to the front page and we want the site that is friendly for our mothers!

F. Spam/Affiliate Links

No obvious spam (we know obvious spam when you see it)

Please do not post affiliate links

No posting to sell things or promote a site with anything less than 10 decent posts

Please note that the Buy/Sale/Trade section (BST) has a fourteen (14) day waiting period from when you make your account to sell anything. This is strictly enforced. All BST rules are available at the following link: http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... 22&t=19928

G. Offensive Content

Do not post content or knowingly link to any site that contains adult content, sexually oriented material, racist, or might otherwise be considered offensive. (If link may contain some potentially offensive content, please use a NSFW tag)

Use common sense. Again, we want to show this website to our mothers and significant others.

H. Signatures Restrictions

Be sure to follow all rules in the “Offensive Content” section above

Please keep signatures to less than four lines of text (at 1024 resolution).. If images are used in a signature, they should be smaller than 15KB and no more than 70 pixels high. Only exceptions are common signature banners from services like XBL or PSN.

Try not to make them annoying or overly distracting

We reserve the right to ask you to change and/or remove your signature or avatar at any time, for any reason.

I. Font Restrictions

Do NOT use excessively large font sizes, as it is considered to be "shouting" and will be edited back down to the default size by the moderators

J. Image Restrictions

Be sure to follow all rules in the “Offensive Content” section aboveUnless otherwise stated, if you post an image in the forums, please keep the image size under 50K.

It is also appreciated if the images isn’t so wide that it breaks the format of the page. (500 pixels wide or less should work)

K. Moderation

The forum is loosely moderated by the site owner with help from volunteer administrators and moderators. The administrators assist in managing the site and forums, maintaining rules and policies, resolving problems, and overseeing forum moderation.

Although the administrators and moderators of the forum will attempt to keep all objectionable messages off this forum, it is impossible for us to review all messagesThe admins and moderators reserve the right to remove, edit, move or close any thread for any reason.

Any ongoing actions that make more work for the moderators and administrators or regularly annoy other members and require moderator action. If banning you is easier than dealing with the problems you are causing, you will be banned.

One thing to remember is that moderators are people too. Although we try to choose moderators who are exceptionally level-headed, it is possible to tick them off. This isn't being unfair; it's being human. When members assume "it's personal" or "I'm being singled out" when their posts are moderated, they are usually wrong. Still, we take all complaints seriously. Trying to stir up a public outcry is frowned upon, so let us know your concerns directly.

The point of moderation is not to limit discussion, promote or suppress points of view, or any other secret agenda. The goal of moderation is to keep the forums enjoyable and free from problems that detract from the experiences of our users.

If your post was removed, there was a reason for it; review these rules because one of them applies to your post or a previous post (because when a post is removed, posts that quote it or reply to it are often removed as well).

The moderators understand that anyone can make a mistake now and then, and they are generally forgiving of minor problems.

L. Forum Abuse Policy

1st Offense - A polite Private Message from a Moderator pointing out the Forum Rules, in addition to the editing or deletion of the post

2nd Offense - Public warning on the message board plus deletion of post

3rd Offense - Moderators will discuss and possibly delete the user from the forum

Depending on the situation, Admin may bypass any and all of these steps and take whatever action is deemed appropriate.

M. Addendum

We reserve the right to update and modify these rules as the needs of the community dictate to ensure the smooth operation of this community.

N. Appendix

Informal note - Text in this blue color in a post that is otherwise devoid of special colors is likely intended to be satire or sarcasm by the poster.

I have to say I mostly like the rules. Its nice to have a site where its a nice atmoshpere. But I do have a question would a topic that has "needs help" but also says what fine? Like "Needs Help Remembering a Game's Name" would something like that be fine? Or do you have to do something like "Game's Name?".

pepharytheworm wrote:I have to say I mostly like the rules. Its nice to have a site where its a nice atmoshpere. But I do have a question would a topic that has "needs help" but also says what fine? Like "Needs Help Remembering a Game's Name" would something like that be fine? Or do you have to do something like "Game's Name?".

Perhaps this would be more entertaining in the form of an instruction booklet, including cartoon sketches and profiles of the moderators. Collector's edition can have an Ack figurine and a cloth map of the internet.

WARNING: A very small percentage of people may experience a seizure when exposed to certain visual images, including flashing lights or patterns that may appear in video games and posts by lordofduct. Immediately stop playing and consult a doctor if you experience any of these symptoms.

J T wrote:Perhaps this would be more entertaining in the form of an instruction booklet, including cartoon sketches and profiles of the moderators. Collector's edition can have an Ack figurine and a cloth map of the internet.

racketboy wrote:The point of moderation is not to limit discussion, promote or suppress points of view, or any other secret agenda. Even though the site is private, we encourage discussion among all members. The goal of moderation is to keep the forums enjoyable and free from problems that detract from the experiences of our users.

Looks great! I think this is the most thorough but lenient set of forum rules I've ever read.Regarding section H article 3; Does my sig seem a bit too distracting? I could easily make it 50% translucent.

racketboy wrote:The point of moderation is not to limit discussion, promote or suppress points of view, or any other secret agenda. Even though the site is private, we encourage discussion among all members. The goal of moderation is to keep the forums enjoyable and free from problems that detract from the experiences of our users.